§ MR. H. HERBERTsaid, that a report had appeared in a newspaper stating that all the officers on board the ship Dover on the African station had been carried off by disease. He wished to know whether the Admiralty had received any intelligence on the subject?
MR. STAFFORDsaid, he was happy to state to the House that no confirmation of the report in question had reached the Admiralty, and, indeed, the advices which had been received from the African station would lead to the belief that the rate of mortality was below the average. Admiral Bruce had sent a report to the Admiralty on the mortality prevailing on the African station from the 1st of July, 1851, to the 30th of June, 1852, from which he would take the liberty of reading the following passage:—
Their Lordships will observe, that among the 220 squadron on the west coast of Africa, from July, 1851, to June, 1852, the ratio of mortality from disease has been 16.2 per 1,000 of the mean force employed, an average which, judging from previous years, is below what we might have anticipated, particularly when we consider the arduous nature of the service performed on the station for the twelve months embraced in the return. I cannot help thinking that the fortunate result is, under Providence, in some measure owing to my having made it a rule to change the stations of the ships whose crews were subject to any extraordinary exposure, but more particularly is it attributable to the use of quinine wine, the skill of the medical officers, and the careful attention of the commanders to the general sanitary condition of their respective ships.